Change our name?

[martinhall1966]

...fact is, not only is Morehead east of Eastern, Murray is west of Western and by
a damned sight more than Morehead/Eastern.

There's nothing really "wrong" with our name. That's not what our problem has
been in sports (football) and the school at large.

It starts with leadership.

Were we to have changed our name to (for example) Commonwealth University
circa '90 or so, Western, Marshall, & Middle would still have lapped us as totally
as they have Eastern Kentucky University.

That said, our physical location relative to Lexington is more significant than
our name. None of the other schools compete for media/students with it's state's
"flagship" a mere 25 miles away.

Toss in the aforementioned leadership questions along with location, our margin for
any type of error in management is much less than our one-time rivals...

Eternal : You make good business sense. I have long felt that we have been under represented because of being in the big blue commercical shadow. We are EKU ! Those who don't like it can deal with connotations. I will say this; My father and his older brother landed on Omaha Beach in the early waves on D-Day. They were mountain boys who fought valiantly for their country. Some may call them hillbillies, I call them Patriots. We need to be who we are with no apologies. Go Colonels!

[ekupops]

Oops! Sorry boys my friend Martin Hall is obviously off his meds. again. I know and respect the people from our eastern mountains. They are a hardy bunch, driven with the determination to succeed in their chosen goals. These folks are not to be ashamed of but rather to be sought after. I was the first in my family to graduate from college and I bet so where a lot of you. My dad was a patriot in WWII also. When we walked across that stage and Hawg Gowls gave us our diplomas I saw a lot of WWII patriots with a tear in their eyes. I’m proud to have graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and I think most of the people who have graduated from EKU are too. The way you get other people to respect you, is to respect yourself, then kick their ass in a football game. Ask Michigan what they think of Appalachian’s football team? I am forever Colonel Maroon.

[ekugrad1970]

Well said

[smidge34]

Talking about east-west, I always found it odd that a university 2 hours east of Murray is called “western” anything lol. The real “central” Kentucky U.

[Sae]

if you fold the state in half from east to west, close to Louisville is the actual center. "Central Kentucky" is almost all in the east, but because of the weird shape, everyone looks at Lexington area as the middle of the state

[Eternal Colonel]

Talking about east-west, I always found it odd that a university 2 hours east of Murray is called “western” anything lol. The real “central” Kentucky U.

...indeed. Fact is, there's a lot of business and professional references to BG/Glasgow/Scottsville, etc. as "South Central Kentucky".

[EKU05]

Talking about east-west, I always found it odd that a university 2 hours east of Murray is called “western” anything lol. The real “central” Kentucky U.

...indeed. Fact is, there's a lot of business and professional references to BG/Glasgow/Scottsville, etc. as "South Central Kentucky".

I'm pretty sure I once saw on WKU's own website that they refer to their own locations as "South Central Kentucky."

I guess if you're looking to answer the question why Murray and Morehead didn't get those names the simple answer is because they were already taken. Eastern and Western had most of two decades in the books (if I remember correctly) before those M's were founded. I think the naming conventions were essentially implying the states intent to establish one "normal school" to represent each side of the state.

To be fair, it wouldn't have made a ton of sense to put us all the way east (like in Pikeville). If we're here to serve the whole region then we should be in a relatively accessible spot. Plus, in our case they chose Richmond because it saved money. They already had the vacant campus of the former Central University to start with.

Speaking of which, I noticed a few years back that all signage and branding/merch at EKU now exclusively lists the 1874 founding date of Central University. You used to see the 1906 a lot (or sometimes even 1874/1906).

[Colonel Since '65]

The geographic center of KY is located in a field in Marion County a few miles from Lebanon. At least that is what a nearby sign claims. The geographic center is where a cut-out map of KY would balance. (I’ve seen the sign—the Bourbon Chase runs right by there.) It is not too far from Danville, so Centre is named correctly. But we stole the “Colonel” name from Centre, so ...

According to Wikipedia, the population center of KY is in Washington County, between Etown and Lexington.

Enough geography lessons. Go EKU.